7 Bahais accused of spying

Seven leaders of the Baha'i faith who have been held in prison for more than eight months in Iran without any access to their lawyer, finally officially accused of "espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic republic". They will face court hearings within a week.

Followers of the Baha’i faith, say the Baha’i founder is the prophet after Muslim's prophet, but Muslims believe that Muhammad was final prophet and there would not be any prophet after their prophet. So this belief regards Baha’is faith heresy and therefore they have been faced systematic persecution in Islamic Iran.

See how this systematic persecution how far goes that couple of days ago, Iran's Prosecutor General Dorri-Najafabadi said "there is irrefutable evidence that adherents of the Baha'i sect are in close contact with the enemies of the Iranian nation, Baha'i organizations are illegal and their connections to Israel and their enmity toward Islam and the Islamic system are absolutely certain and their threat against national security is a proven fact."

It just happened that Baha'i World Center is in Haifa, city of Israel and this goes back in history before founding of the Jewish state but Islamic Iran abuses this fact and provides false propaganda to Iranian people too easily charges Baha'is.

There is not any due fair legal process in Islamic Iran's Judiciary and specially in the religiously and politically motivated cases.



Related links:
Iran: 7 Bahais to Face Trial
Religious leaders face spying charges in Iran
Iran Accuses 7 Jailed Leaders of Bahai Faith of Espionage

A documentary about a juvenile who executed for crimes against chastity

Though this is not a case but it very important that we all know what is going on in Iranian judiciary system and I guess this documentary would give you wide-range info that how injustice cause by Islamic judiciary which in fact should be responsible for justice, irony. I thought I should have put a these videos altogether here in a post.

On 15 August, 2004, Atefah Sahaaleh was hanged in a public square in the Iran. They accused her adultery and described her as 22 years old but she was just 16. She charged for crimes against chastity.

BBC developed a documentary that comes in five episodes. If you don’t have time, watching the last episode can give you basic insight about this case and how inappropriately judiciary mishandled it. Nothing has changed in judiciary for good and they still continue to carry their unfair sentences and executions.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5

Link to BBC: Execution of a teenage girl

Human Rights in Iran on the 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution

A look at Human Rights in Iran on the 30th Anniversary of the Islamic Revolution:

Amnesty International:

Ayatollah Khomeini promised that all Iranians would be free. However, the past 30 years have been characterised by persistent human rights violations.

The multitude of especially severe violations that marked the early years of the Islamic Republic declined over time, but today the human rights situation still remains grim. Hopes for a sustained improvement rose during the period of reform under President Khatami (1997 to 2005), which saw some easing of restrictions on freedom of expression, but have been firmly dashed since the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.

Four years later, ahead of new Presidential elections later this year, impunity, torture and other ill-treatment, as well as the use of the death penalty remain prevalent.

Some sectors of society – including ethnic minorities – continue to face widespread discrimination, while the situation for other groups – notably some religious minorities – has significantly worsened under the current President.

Those seen as dissenting from stated or unstated official policies face severe restrictions on their rights to freedom of belief, expression, association and assembly. Women continue to face discrimination – both in law and practice. Impunity for human rights abuses is widespread.

Reference: Amnesty International

Islamic Iran torture bloggers and award torturers!

Four Iranian bloggers sentenced to a total of 8.5 years of prison term and 124 lashes, by a criminal court in Tehran. Bloggers Javad Gholam Tamimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, Roozbeh MireEbrahimi and Omid Memarian are convicted on variety of charges like "participation in formation of groups to disturb national security," "propaganda against the state," "dissemination of disinformation to disturb public opinion by writing articles" and "interviews with foreign radio broadcasts." Some above mentioned bloggers have more charges like "treason against country", "insulting supreme leader" and "possession of playing cards" which the judge referred to as "gambling tools."

These bloggers were tortured and coerced to confess after being arrested in 2004. Even a judicial investigation had confirmed they were subjected to torture to confess but yet again judge used those confessions to convict them and in a greater scale silence bloggers and media.

Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East division at Human Rights Watch said:

"The Iranian judiciary is trying to prosecute government critics using vague, overbroad laws whose very names restrict free expression. Iran should be prosecuting the officials accused of torture, not the bloggers accused of holding opinions."

Joe Stork, deputy director of human rights group's Middle East division said:

"These sentences are shocking, given that the head of the judiciary himself admitted the evidence had been obtained by coercion, the judges should be investigating and prosecuting abusers, not their victims."

Justice is long dead in Islamic totalitarian Iran.



Related links:
4 bloggers sentenced in Iran
Iran: Prosecute Torturers, Not Bloggers
Iran: Judiciary Should Admit Blogger Abuse
Iran: Torture Used to Obtain ‘Confessions’

Another Juvenile on a death row in Iran

Mostafa Naqdi was 15 years old in 2004 when he got into a fight which ended in tragedy and since then he is in prison to reach to age 18 then by Islamic law definition will be allowed to be executed.

Please watch this video and be the judge yourself.

direct link to bbc video

Unfortunately most of cases are all like this one. Most of children didn’t have access to lawyer, their tricked to confess or tortured to confess which is general treatment against accused in Iran and sadly their confession under those circumstances are intact and valid in courts.


Hat tips: BBC, Rotten Gods

Baha’is are humans as much as you are!

Freedom of religion and from religion is the fundamental right of humankind. No government should question religion or belief of its citizens.

I urge Islamic republic of Iran to comply with Universal Declaration of Human Rights which Iran is a signatory and every Iranian including Baha’is are entitled to all articles specified in the Declaration.

I urge Iranian government to respect International treaties that signed and thereby should change the article 13 of Islamic republic of Iran’s constitution that only recognize Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism as religious minority. Baha’i is a religion that has more than 300,000 followers in Iran. It has by far more member than other three mentioned religious minorities, yet it is not recognized in Islamic republic of Iran’s constitution.

Iranian regime should respect Baha’is’ rights and let Baha’is enjoy their rights like any other Iranians.

Iran belongs to these people as much as it belongs to any other Iranian. Islamic Iran authorities! Listen, don’t persecute them, don’t push them away, don’t deprive them from higher education, don’t confiscate their properties, don’t destroy their graves in cemeteries, don’t…don’t deprive them from their rights; they are humans as much as you are!

A group of Iranian academics, writers, activists, artists and journalists throughout the world is signing an open letter in which to apologize for the long silence on the discrimination of Baha’is throughout Iran. Please join us and sign the petition.